Troy Hill’s community center has been closed for years. ARPA funds could fuel a rebuild, but the neighborhood is still waiting on action.
“You gonna fix it?”
That’s what Ronald Chess asked a reporter taking photos of the long-closed and crumbling Cowley Recreation Center in Troy Hill last week. The question he posed was one the neighborhood has asked of city leaders since a faulty roof forced the community center to close in the 2000s.
“I think if they rebuilt this, this would heighten the whole attitude of the community,” Chess said, adding that there are more families with children in the neighborhood lately who could benefit from community center programming. Chess bought a house on nearby Basin Street in 2005, complete with a view of the building and an adjacent ballfield.
A year ago, the city earmarked $6 million from its federal COVID-19 relief funds to demolish the decrepit structure and build a state-of-the-art new one. But the project was stalled for years prior to this allocation, and community leaders have not heard from the city about when it may move forward.
Troy Hill resident Ronald Chess stands in front of the long-closed Cowley Rec Center. (Photo by Charlie Wolfson/PublicSource)
The Cowley rebuild is one of dozens of projects the city plans to fund with its $335 million American Rescue Plan Act [ARPA] allotment. President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats passed ARPA in early 2021, and Pittsburgh adopted a plan to spend its allotment in July 2021.
The city has until the end of 2024 to spend all of its ARPA funds. More than a year later, most of the planned projects are, like the Cowley center, not started yet. The unspent money includes:
- $15.7 million set aside for seven rec centers, including Cowley
- $23.2 million for infrastructure, including a long-awaited pedestrian bridge for Brighton Heights and improvements to the rusty and creaky Frazier Street steps in Oakland
- $16.8 million for the Avenues of Hope initiative, which boosts business districts in underserved neighborhoods, and other community development efforts
- $41.5 million for affordable housing, including land trusts, homeownership programs and utility assistance
- $10 million to jumpstart the Pittsburgh Land Bank.
See where the city plans to spend ARPA dollars on capital projects
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